The Matrix: The Sadalsud
by Alana the Black Mage
Summary: The crew of the Sadalsud enters the Matrix on what was supposed to be an easy mission...(yeah, crappy summary -.-)


The Matrix: The Sadalsud  
  
by Alana the Black Mage  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the Matrix or any of the Agents (damn them...*shakes fist*). However, I do own the characters that I made up.  
  
A/N: Hmm...just a short little one shot that I got the idea for when I was in a pissed off, stressed, and depressed mood. Heh.  
  
_____  
  
This was supposed to be a simple mission. Get in, get the potential rebel, get back out.  
  
'As if anything could ever go that simple...' Charon thought to himself as he and two of his crew, Dragon and Andromeda, ran from the three Agents.  
  
"You think we've lost them yet?" Andromeda asked as they turned into an alley.  
  
"I don't know...but we need a way out." Charon replied, pulling out his cell phone. But before he could dial, it started ringing.  
  
"Astraea, we need an exit!" he said into the phone.  
  
"Yeah, I've got you one. It's a payphone inside a warehouse four blocks north of where you are. But we've got problems." Astraea replied. The sound of frantic typing came over the reciever.  
  
"More trouble? What now?" Charon asked. The three of them burst out of the alley onto another street.  
  
"Your little agent buddies called for backup, so you've got about 20 SWAT team members waiting for you. Not to mention the fact that there's some calamari snooping around the ship." Astraea replied, a hint of worry creeping into her normally sarcastic voice.  
  
Charon swore, and responded, "Have that hardline ready for us."  
  
"What's this 'more trouble'?" Dragon asked as Charon put his phone back in his pocket.  
  
"SWATs and sentinels." Charon replied.  
  
"So we're fighting our way out." Andromeda stated.  
  
"Don't forget the Agents." Charon said.  
  
"Like we could ever forget about them..." Dragon muttered. From somewhere very nearby they could hear a police siren. The three of them continued to sprint down the street.  
  
"The exit's in that warehouse...LOOK OUT!" Charon shouted as they ran around a corner and were immediately met by a hail of bullets. They ducked back around the corner, drawing their guns.  
  
"Looks like we're outnumbered by at least six to one." Dragon commented, checking to make sure his Glock was fully loaded. Charon, going more for heavy firepower, was carrying an M16. Andromeda was armed with an Ingrams, but since she was primarily a martial artist, on her person was a number of concealed knives and daggers.  
  
"Let's go. Watch your back." Charon said.  
  
"Don't worry, I don't intend to get killed by a few coppertops." Andromeda replied before dashing back around the corner, gun out and blazing. By the time her two male counterparts had caught up with her, three SWATs were already down and she was ducking behind a mailbox, reloadng her gun. While she reloaded, Charon and Dragon opened fire, dropping five more SWATs. They ducked down, reloading, as Andromeda ran out, quickly emptying her clip into two SWATs. Dropping the now-empty gun, she ran up to the nearest SWAT and kicked him squarely in the chest, dropping him, while Charon and Dragon each took down three more SWATs. At this point there were only three SWAT team members left. While Charon and Dragon reloaded, Andromeda drew a knife and lunged at one of the remaining SWATs. Before she could complete her attack, though, they opened fire on her. She tried to twist out of the way, but was unable to; she was hit in the arm and the side. She fell, and her knife only slashed across the SWAT's arm, instead of this throat, as it had been intended.  
  
"Damnit!" Charon shouted, jamming a fresh clip into his assault rifle and firing on the three SWATs. He and Dragon ran towards them, both shooting, hoping to distract them from the wounded Andromeda. The SWATs fired back at them, but they never stood a chance; they were down before they could do anything but graze Dragon's arm with a lucky shot.  
  
"You okay?" Charon as Andromeda, as he and Dragon helped her up.  
  
"Yeah." she replied, holding her hand over the bullet wound in her side. Charon's cell phone began to ring.  
  
"Get to that hardline, now." Astraea said as soon as he answered it.  
  
"What's wrong now?" Charon asked.  
  
"The squiddies are starting to get nosy...and the Agents have almost caught up on you. Oh, and Andromeda's vital signs are starting to go erratic; I think that bullet hit something important." she replied. He looked over at Andromeda, who was indeed looking considerably worse than she had only moments before.  
  
"Okay." he said, hanging up and putting away his phone. "Come on, our exit's in here."  
  
"Are you sure you're okay?" Dragon asked as they moved toward the warehouse as quickly as they could. He was helping Andromeda walk, and she was leaning rather heavily on him.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." she responded, despite the fact that she winced with pain with every step they took and her face was a chalky white.  
  
"Astraea thinks that the bullet hit one of your vital organs." Charon said as he picked the lock on the warehouse door. On the far wall, near the other door, was a payphone; it was ringing. The had made their way about halfway across the large area, when --  
  
"There they are."  
  
"The rebels."  
  
"Do not allow them to escape."  
  
Agents.  
  
All three of them.  
  
"Damnit..." Dragon said. "Could anything else go wrong?"  
  
No sooner than he had said those works, the three Agents drew their Desert Eagles and opened fire. The three rebels ran for what little cover they could find, but not before Dragon was hit in the shoulder.  
  
"I...ahh...think we're in a bit of trouble..." Dragon commented. Charon chose to ignore this, and glanced around the room. There was very little cover between where they were hiding and the payphone, a distance of about 250 feet.  
  
"Thank you, Captain Obvious..." Andromeda muttered in response to Dragon.  
  
"We're just going to have to run for it." Charon stated. "There's almost no cover so be careful and take whatever you can."  
  
Andromeda peeked around the corner of the crate they had ducked behind, and quickly drew her head back when a bullet hit about an inch from where her face had been.  
  
"I think the Agents are starting to get a little bit pissed." she said, glancing back the the others. Dragon snorted in response, and muttered something along the lines of, "And you call me Captain Obvious..."  
  
"How far from us are they?" Charon asked.  
  
"About halfway between us and the entrance." she answered.  
  
"Okay. This is what we're going to do. You two will run to the hardline, and I will distract the agents." he stated, knowing that his two crew members were not going to like this plan.  
  
"What do you mean, you'll distract the agents?" Andromeda asked, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"I'll fire at them to try and keep them away from you so you can get out." Charon said. "Look, you two are both injured--"  
  
"Ha, it's only a flesh wound." Dragon broke in.  
  
"--and I'd rather like for all of us to get out of here alive. Now, we're wasting time that we don't have. I'm the captain and I say move!" Charon continued, glaring at Dragon and Andromeda before leaping out from behind the crate, firing his M16 at the agents.  
  
"He's insane." Andromeda simply said.  
  
"No kidding...c'mon, let's get the hell out of here." Dragon responded. They began running across the room as fast as Andromeda could, when she looked back and noticed something.  
  
Charon was only fighting one Agent.  
  
"Shit...where'd they go..." she said. Dragon glanced at her, and they both heard Charon shout.  
  
"LOOK OUT, THEY'RE TO YOUR LEFT!"  
  
Charon almost forgot the fact that he had been fighting an Agent as he watched what was happening in horror. As soon as he yelled his warning, the two Agents stepped out from the shadows, guns extended. A moment later, it was over, both Andromeda and Dragon lying on the ground. Charon didn't know if they were still alive, but he knew that if they were, it wouldn't be for too much longer. Enraged, he spun back around to face the Agent he had been fighting.  
  
"Weak humans...as if there is any doubt of our superiority." the Agent stated arrogantly, smirking. Charon charged at the Agent. With one hand he swung a fist at the Agent's head, while the other hand drew a hidden gun--a Desert Eagle. The Agent, blocking the punch, didn't notice the gun...and fell to the ground as Charon shot him in the chest. The body briefly flickered green, and then became that of a young police officer. Charon looked up and over to where his two fallen crew members were; the two Agents were gone. He didn't know where they were, and frankly, he didn't care. He sprinted to where they lay, and dropped down beside them.   
  
"Oh, damn...Dragon, Andromeda, you better still be alive..." he mumbled. Neither were moving, and they both appeared to be unconcious. He felt Dragon's neck for a pulse, but there was nothing. Clenching his fist in anger, he turned to face Andromeda. He checked for a pulse, inadvertantly letting out a sigh of relief when he found one, though it was very faint.  
  
"Andromeda...wake up..." he said, hoping that she would, though deep down he knew she wouldn't. She had been hit three times by the Agents, twice in the stomach and once in the chest. He waited a few seconds, and then checked for her pulse again; it was gone. He jumped as his cell phone rang.  
  
"Yeah?" he said, answering it.  
  
"They're gone. Both Dragon and Andromeda are gone." Astraea responded. She waited a moment before continuing. "Charon, please, get out of there already. I don't know where the hell the Agents went, just get out of the Matrix already before they come back."  
  
"Okay...I'm leaving." Charon said. He stood up and pocketed his cell phone. Looking one last time at the two fallen rebels, he walked over to where the payphone was ringing. He put it to his ear and was gone in a flash of green code.  
  
When he woke back up, he was sitting in his chair aboard the Sadalsud. Astraea stood near him, and she looked as though she had been crying. Charon glanced away from here and over to the two chairs where Charon and Andromeda's bodies were, a horrible feeling of guilt washing over him.  
  
"Charon..." Astraea began, helping him up.  
  
"It's my fault they're dead." he stated. Astraea narrowed her eyes at him.  
  
"No, it isn't. The whole mission was screwed over from the very beggining when you found out the potential rebel had been captured by Agents. You tried your damnedest to get out of ther there safe. Plain and simple, it was no one's fault but those bastard Agents." Astraea said, her tone sharp.  
  
"But I let the Agents get them." Charon said.  
  
"There wasn't anything you could do about that...and what were you thinking taking on three Agents by yourself anyway? Did you have a death wish? And if you want to die so badly, you may just get your chance." Astraea replied. "I think the sentinels have found us."  
  
"Damn..." Charon said, forcing himself to put his feelings of guilt behind him. They both moved to the bridge and took their seats. Charon swore when he looked outside; outside the ship several dozen sentinels idly flew around, occasionally extending a sensor.  
  
"Charge the EMP." he said. "And don't make any sudden moves." She nodded, and slowly turned and began charging the EMP, their main weapon against the machines. Charon began powering up the ship as quietly and carefully as possible. The ship was nearly completely powered up, when one of the sentinels looked directly at the ship. One by one the other sentinels followed suit, sensors extended.  
  
"Oh shit..." Charon said. Astraea looked up frantically.  
  
"The EMP isn't fully charged yet!" she responded.  
  
"Then we'll have to try and run." he answered. Taking the controls of the ship, they began to move.  
  
"If they didn't know for sure that we were here before, they certainly do now..." Astraea muttered, trying to hide her nervousness. The ship was now flying through the tunnel, sentinels following behind them.  
  
"Bastards are staying just out of EMP range..." Charon commented as he piloted the ship.  
  
"Just our luck..." Astraea added.  
  
"Is that EMP charged yet?" he asked.  
  
"No! It shouldn't take this long, either!" she replied. Suddenly, the sentinels swarmed the ship, latching on and using lasers to cut through the engines.  
  
"It's charged!" Astraea shouted.  
  
"Hit it!" Charon ordered. She hit the red button, and a blue electromagnetic wave swept through the ship and the machines outside. The Sadalsud came to a rocky halt against the side of the tunnel, tilted to one side.  
  
"Astraea? You okay?" Charon asked.  
  
"Uhh...yeah..." she replied, wiping blood from a cut over her left eye and pulling herself back into her seat. She looked out the window and her eyes widened.  
  
"What is it?" Charon asked, afraid to follow her gaze. She just pointed, silently, and he forced himself to look. Not all the sentinels had given chase, and now a group of them were moving towards where the Sadalsud lay.   
  
"I don't think we're going to be able to get out of this mess..." he said, looking at Astraea. She nodded in response. The EMP had also knocked out all the ship's systems, and left them sitting ducks. The swarm of sentinels flew at the crippled ship, and Astraea shrieked as one broke through the hull of the bridge. She tried to run for it, but the machine was faster than she; she was pinned to the floor, impaled through her lower back by a metal tentacle. Charon managed to get out of the bridge, but he knew there was no point to running now. He heard a distinct whistling sound that he recognized as a bomb.   
  
"This is it..." he mumbled to himself. He closed his eyes as he felt the impact on the side of his ship, and was quickly overtaken by the fireball of the explosion.  
  
_____  
  
Nothing like killing a bunch of fictional characters to cheer yourself up, huh? ^_^  
  
Please leave any comments you have! Flames will be dealt with by my two mini-sentinels, Niobie and Noibe!  
  
(If you'd like to adopt a mini-sentinel, report any misspellings of names of characters/ships from the Matrix to Dark Puck, heehee!) 


End file.
